Do you recommend Koei’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms VI?

Version 3.0. Make sure you post in this one a lot so it doesn't go away! Edit (James): Added a poll so it doesn’t go away—phpBB bug.

Some of the reasons I love this game:

-It helped transform me into a real RTK player, someone who tries to use strategy for victory. Previously on IV, I use to gather the most absurd sized army on the planet and conquer cities, adding new additions to my forces and completely abandoning the city to move on. I called them "raiding parties" but it was more like "total destruction parties." I could clear the map and then spread out into the cities, but never develop them. On VI, you had to hold a city after you conquered it and couldn't simply move out. This made me be more patient and turned me into as much of an economic and trickerous strategy player as a military brute. From there on out, I've taken into consideration turning and planting officers, spying, sabotage and many other things in every RTK game that I play, as well as the benefits of fully developing the land.

-The officers are represented very well on RTK VI. Because of the dreams, they get a proper personality profile and on this game, officers are actually loyal to who they are suppose to be loyal too, unlike any other RTK game. This makes officer interaction more fun for me and heightens the duels when you can get two familiar officers together such as Guan Yu and Zhang Fei in the 200 A.D. scenario. It strenghtens what the family bonds were really like then and makes it fun to be the head of a clan with your bevy of extended family members and loyal retainers. Even in the new RPG-ish games, I don't think the officers have ever been more accurately portrayed than in RTK VI.

-The full-map view. I love the map on this game. I get to look out over the entire country of China while I execute my commands and get a look at every event taking place. The newer games have a decent map view that focuses in on the castle much more. They're nice, but I prefer to be able to look at the whole land at once and see my flag spread over castle after castle.

-The character portraits and stats are some of the best I've seen. When I think of Cao Cao in my mind, the portrait used in VI is always the image that comes to mind and that rings true with most officers. The stats are also some of the best all around, though a couple characters such as Cao Ren, Hong, Yue Jin, etc. got shorted, they still did a decent job, though I like how they did it on X as well. Still wish there was an option to edit stats.

-Civil/Military phase. I'm huge on organization, so I find it nice to have it where you can complete all of your common tasks and order all of your military attacks at once, but carry out those assaults in a separate phase. Maybe less realistic, but a function I found interesting and a good addition to the game.

-Introduction movies/events. Something new from RTK IV. I loved watching the little movies that introduce the scenario from each ruler's perspective, even if I have them all memorized now. Getting to watch the characters move around and see certain ones in unique robes was a nice addition. It made sending an envoy and conducting duels more real and better to see them from a 3D perspective.

-Speaking of duels, RTK VI has the best of the series. Some skill and luck are involved in them and you have some decent control over the character. X also has great duels and in a way it's a throwback/upgrade of the RTK VI system.

And I loved utilising armoured horsemen. I like starting in the west, get the difficult terrain out the way first. And I always use a custom kingdom. My mother is usually the starting ruler, with myself as the "Champion" class son. She survives the entire games usually, making her Emperess!

VI totally felt like Han China, the recent games don't give me that sense of connection to China, and feal more like...games. If you get me, I didn't get into it as much. And yeah, the cutscenes are sexy cool. A lot better than X, which decided to skimp on sprites and give Dong Zhuo the Sun Quan sprite. Wtf?

VI is the best RTK out there. If they make another RTK, they need to bring VI back. Seriously, it's the best framework for making the best RTK.

"The imaginary number is a fine and wonderful resource of the human spirit, almost an amphibian between being and not being." - Gottfried LeibnizScience snobbery.

Ranbir wrote:VI totally felt like Han China, the recent games don't give me that sense of connection to China, and feal more like...games. If you get me, I didn't get into it as much. And yeah, the cutscenes are sexy cool. A lot better than X, which decided to skimp on sprites and give Dong Zhuo the Sun Quan sprite. Wtf?

VI is the best RTK out there. If they make another RTK, they need to bring VI back. Seriously, it's the best framework for making the best RTK.

Truth. I'm glad some other people feel the same way. I've always felt that VI is the framework for the perfect RTK game, as said installment is the closest they've come.

I also agree about the feel that RTK VI gives. The early games give me a connection that makes we want to re-read the novel and immerse myself in the RTK world, the new ones don't.

Well....since my quest to find a ROTK game has ended with me trading to get ROTK6 after the disappointment of 4, 7, and 8, it sounds like I made the right choice. Especially if it's actually hard at all.

If it's good enough, it might ruin the game I'm writing up based on Koei's failures. I suppose I could live with that. Beats learning how to program.

I just recently discovered this wonderfull game again. I was wondering though if anyone could give me an explenation of the diffrent dreams and what officers with those diffrent dreams should do to keep them satisfied.

Thanks for any help.

All we need to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us... "Gandalf the grey"

Death smiles to us all...., all we can do is smile back... "Marcus Aurelius"

The following is from the RTK VI booklet(with my notes explaining everything a little more below it). It nicely sums up what each dream basically stands for and you can infer from there what each officer is most likely to want to be affiliated with:

Advisor - Support the Emperor and Unify the land. Ignore foreign nations.
Justice - Make your cities safe. Save the people through good government.
Talent- Find a place to develop your own talents.
Territorial - Govern and make your land safe. When the time is right, expand.
Preserve - Concentrate on defense. Protect your land.
Safety - Avoid danger, live in peace and safety. Develop and ensure the safety of your cities.
Empire - Raise your Ruler to the Imperial Seat. Unify the Land. Ignore foreign nations.
Control - Expand your territory through invasion. Ignore foreign nations.
Advance - Find personal advancement in a chaotic world. Gather a fortune.
Loyalty - Give your life and loyalty to one you respect.
Retirement - Leave behind the cares of this world.

Officers with dreams like Empire, Control, Advance, etc. will prefer a ruler who acts similar to Cao Cao. One whose ultimate goal is to be the Emperor of a unified nation, a nation unified through war. Officers with the Advance dream are the ones who will suggest a council to name a ruler Emperor if he obtains the Hereditary seal, while the others will support it, not only to advance their ruler, but themselves.

Officers with dreams like Justice, Talent, Preserve and Safety will prefer a more restrained approach and would rather live under a more relaxed ruler such as Liu Biao. One who may ultimately conquer the land, but in doing so, won't ruffle too many feathers and will concentrate more on developing and protecting the land he has and might obtain.

Officers with dreams such as Advisor and Territorial will follow the Liu Bei approach. They want to conquer the land in an effort to restore the Han Dynasty and in conquering the land, they want to take careful precautions to act as a faithful Han minister and a destroyer of rebels.

If an officer has the Loyalty dream, he will do anything and everything you ask of him, while an officer with the Retirement dream will do nothing. Retirement is a dream you're not likely to encounter much, but Mi Heng and many defeated Rulers will have this dream.

With those basic outlines, you'll be able to tell what commands certain officers are more likely to enjoy. (ex. An officer with the safety dream is going to want to stay behind and develop Public Saftey, not march with you to war.)